A short while later, Jing Lei also brought Mr. Lin over.
I went to meet him and thanked Mr. Lin for his hard work.
Mr. Lin replied, "It's no trouble. Shall we examine the stones first?"
Brother Bao and Lan Ya were by the raw stones. They saw Mr. Lin shake hands with Brother Bao.
Mr. Lin, holding a magnifying glass and a flashlight, eagerly rushed to the cut surface to inspect it.
He kept making clucking sounds, and I felt he was awestruck.
I asked, "Mr. Lin, how should we cut it next?"
With us cutting it in half, we had no way to estimate how much material there was.
Mr. Lin said, "Let's slice it. Cut everything into thirty-centimeter slices."
I agreed and instructed the workers to secure the stone.
Brother Bao then said, "Mr. Lin, please come with us. We have another piece to look at."
Mr. Lin followed us to another warehouse.
This was the grain storage. A musty smell hit us as soon as we entered.
It hadn't been used for production in many years, and the old grain hadn't been cleaned out. It had all rotted.
In a corner of the warehouse, the first few stones that had been cut were covered with a tarpaulin. Brother Bao asked the workers to pull it aside so Mr. Lin could see them.
The characteristic of large stones is their size and abundance of material. In terms of appearance, they are not necessarily superior.
However, large stones can yield large decorative pieces, which small stones cannot. Therefore, even if their appearance is average, their price is very high.
This was evident. It was a roughly 600-kilogram piece of bean-green jade. Mr. Lin offered 120 million yuan. Once the other stone was sliced, the settlement would be made together.
He planned to have Jing Lei's father arrange craftsmen to design it here, do some preliminary processing, and then transport it back for polishing.
Transporting the entire raw stone would be somewhat unrealistic. Moreover, the cost of craftsmen in Hong Kong is several times higher than in Ruili. For such a large quantity, it would likely amount to a considerable sum.
Once the price for this stone was agreed upon, Jing Lei contacted the factory to arrange for a truck to take the stone away.
At noon, Brother Bao hosted a meal at the seafood restaurant. After eating, we went for tea and stayed for a long time before returning.
Slicing the stone was slow. Even if we had returned immediately, it would not have been finished.
Mr. Lin went to rinse the cut pieces of stone. Now, with the light shining on them, they exuded a warm, radiant glow that was exhilarating.
Mr. Lin said, "Brother Bao, the result of the slicing is about as we expected. This batch of material is about 1,500 kilograms. I'll purchase it at 500,000 yuan per kilogram. Adding the previous 120 million, I'll pay you a total of 770 million yuan. Brother Bao, do you have any objections?"
Brother Bao nodded, "I have no objections. Mr. Lin is straightforward in his dealings, and I am also direct. I won't haggle with you."
Seeing Brother Bao agree, Mr. Lin took out an international draft check and handed it to Brother Bao after filling it out.
Brother Bao immediately handed the check to Lan Ya and then said to Mr. Lin, "I will be responsible for transporting these stones to the processing plant. Mr. Lin, please go ahead with your arrangements."
Mr. Lin clasped his hands and said, "Then I will trouble you, Brother Bao. I need to meet with the designer at Mr. Zhang's place."
After seeing Mr. Lin off, Brother Bao said, "The funding is not an issue. Lan Ya, please make the distribution. You and Hua Zi will each get ten percent. The remainder, I will reinvest in raw stones. I will hold fifty percent, and you two will each have a ten percent stake. The remaining thirty percent will be allocated to suitable investors."
I must say, Brother Bao is a generous person. Logically, this raw stone was gambled with his personal funds, and it had little to do with us. Giving us a bonus would have been enough. Instead, he separated the money and the shares, and we received everything we were due.
We each received seventy-seven million yuan. This brought our total to over 150 million yuan. I wondered if that would be enough to purchase the farm in the suburbs.
I still had some of my own, and if Lan Ya contributed a bit more, we could pool two hundred million. If Jing Lei could contribute a hundred million, we would have three hundred million in hand. In that case, we would likely not have many rivals in the entire Ruicheng.
It's not that there aren't many people in Ruicheng with three hundred million. It's that there might not be many people who are equally interested in this particular plot of land and can also come up with the money.
At worst, we could get a bank loan, but that's a last resort. Since we are buying it for long-term investment, we might not touch it for three to five years. Having the bank's money sit idle would incur astronomical interest, making it a losing proposition.
Brother Bao continued, "Now that we've discussed the smooth sailing, let's talk about the trouble ahead. Kang Gong will definitely not let this go when he returns. His business elsewhere is temporarily shut down, and most of his energy will shift to Ruicheng. The biggest business that can be done in Ruicheng currently is raw stones. In this regard, his network is wider than ours. Therefore, as long as he enters this industry, our business will not be easy."
Yes, raw stones are different from other commodities. Their only origin is Myanmar, and the channels are extremely narrow. If someone with sufficient financial and material resources can monopolize them, it will make it difficult for many people to survive.
I said, "Brother Bao, the factory is now equipped to receive goods. Should we start purchasing raw stones now and stock them in the warehouse, rather than waiting until we're in a bind?"
Brother Bao said, "That's what I was thinking. I spoke with Brother Qing this morning, and he agreed to release some inventory from the Longji mine for us to open first, with subsequent supplies according to contract."
I replied, "That's the best course of action. If we have to wait for the contract, it will be over two months. By then, who knows what the situation will be?"
Brother Bao continued, "Then it's settled. After handling Mr. Lin's affairs, you and I will go to the Longji raw stone mine together. We'll pick a batch of good quality raw stones. Since we are building a brand, we must ensure our customers receive the best products."
At this point, the workers had loaded all the stones onto the trucks. Wen Siqiang was directing the trucks to drive out.
Jing Lei accompanied Mr. Lin to meet her father. I called her to inform her that all the stones had been transported and that I had workers escorting the trucks. I asked her to prepare the receiving area.
As we walked out, Lan Ya saw my new car and insisted that her driver take her car back, and she would ride with me.
As Brother Bao was leaving, he said that tomorrow morning, he, I, Wen Siqiang, and Da Kui would go to Myanmar.
Wen Siqiang, after all, drives often. He drove down once, and now he's much more skilled, and his speed has increased considerably.
Just then, my phone rang. It was the contact person for Bo Gang.
Since handing Kang Gong over to Bo Gang, he had been quiet and hadn't contacted me. I thought he had shifted his focus and wouldn't bother me anymore. The reality proved my thoughts to be mistaken.
The contact person said that Bo Gang was waiting for me at the usual place tonight for tea.
This old man, would he invite me for tea out of kindness? Kang Gong must have escaped. Since he didn't get any benefit, he must be thinking of some crooked scheme again.
The other party also mentioned that the general would be crossing the border after tea, urging me to come over sooner.
I checked the time. It was four in the afternoon. We could send Lan Ya back first, and then we could still make it to the Sino-Myanmar Street.
Lan Ya commented, "It seems this old fellow isn't giving up!"
I replied, "These people are truly insatiably greedy. In their eyes, as long as there's money to be made, they can even sell their souls."